Over the past few weeks, some airlines announced new fees and policies for members of their frequent flier programs. Delta’s new charges for Skymiles members somehow seemed more obnoxious than most:
*MOUSE PRINT:
— Awards booked less than 21 days before travel will incur fees of $75, $100, or $150; while booking 21 or more days in advance is fee-free.
— There will be a $25 fuel surcharge for domestic flights, and $50 internationally.
— Miles needed for a domestic coach roundtrip will now be 25,000, 40,000 or 60,000. (Funny how the cheap 25,000 point seats always seem to be unavailable.) The site cleverly makes you think they lowered the number of miles needed by displaying the number for a ONE-WAY trip rather than the traditional (and still required) roundtrip:
— If one segment of your trip is on a partner airline, there is an additional $25 partner fee.
— Miles will now expire two years from the date of the last qualifying activity in your account. Previously, they gave you until December 31st of the year two years after your last activity. The effect of this to further shorten the life of your miles, so they can wipe out your account sooner.
Remember the good old days when a free ticket really was a free tickert? Well, at least as the New Times says, the airsickness bags are still free.
Seems like airlines are now heading in the same direction as credit cards “here’s a fee, there’s a fee, everywhere you look there’s another fee”. Eventually, the government will step in to clean up that mess as they are now doing with cc companies. Fees, surcharges or whatever you want to call it are just getting out of control.
We used our FF miles in May for 2 free tickets from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City. In order for us each to get the 25000 miles we had to apply for a credit card for each of us with no fee for the first year, we got 20,000 miles EACH for using the cards and then we used them for shopping to get the remaining miles. We got our free tickets and then cancelled the cards before the year was up so we didn’t have to pay an annual fee. No wonder the airlines were going broke when they let freeloaders like us to do this. They are finally wising up and making it a little harder.
Oh well just one more card to tear up. You know that this is all because of that generation that was so anti-government. The generation after them now has to deal with the government because we business owners are taking advantage. Government said okay you all can dig a hole for yourselves and you will eventually needs us. Well guess what kiddies it reached that point with credit card companies, mortgage companies, and banks. Airlines are next. This way government says hello loosers you said you didn’t want it look who has to step in and clean up your mess. Government is a parental entity and we rebelled from our parents back in the day and now we are needing government to clean up our mess. Will wonders never cease. It puts a whole new spin on “The mom is always right and right she will always be” Insert government in place of mom and volla magic.
Its the cost of doing business. I am not surprised. Along with rising gas prices and so much personal money issues even freindships dare I say it are getting burned. Customer service and making a customer your freind are old news. Now its everyone and everything is a used car salesman with bills to pay that will sell you that car with everything that can be tacked on there.
I was not using used car salesman in a derogotory way just as an example so please do not get offended.
I’ve heard that many of the programs have changed so that points expire in 18 months.
Meanwhile over at U.S. Air, they canceled my account for insufficient usage, then offered to re-instate it for a $50 fee. Now they keep sending me messages on how I can get more miles by buying from their affiliates.
I respect that they’re looking for ways to get my business, but they need to start by cleaning up the airline security issues–yes, tell Congress to stop shoving “safety” down our throats and let us get back to realizing that our lives are more threatened by the weather than by terrorists. (That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to threats, but don’t get a false sense of security that all of these useless security measures will make much difference compared to causing major inconveniences that drive people away from that type of transportation.)
I’ll wait a few more years until the airline industry finishes shaking out and stop flying small shuttle planes every 15 minutes when they could simply fly a larger plane every 30 minutes and save on gas etc. After the shake-up, we should find that the industry is very stable again and I can then fly.
amy,
I’m not offended by your used car salesman analogy. I am offended, amazed and stunned by your interpretation of historical events. I hope to God there are not many more like you that believe government is their momma! I am sorry you have been brainwashed into this type of thinking.
Shawn
PEACE OUT
There is a VERY fine line between regulation and free market that hasn’t been in sync for quite awhile. There does need to be some government regulation to ensure that the airlines are playing safely, maintaining their planes well, taking well thought out steps to stifle terror tactics, and keeping pilots from flying too much. There should also be a consumer protection portion of regulation, an agency with some teeth to investigate consumer complaints and allegations of mistreatment.
On the other hand, the industry must have the leeway to run a corporation that is efficient, and profitable.
We have swung from one side of the line to the other in the past 20 years, we need to find a middle ground. We need an FAA that is better funded, a new set of restrictions and fines the FAA can lodge against an airline, and a FAA is not so chummy with the airline industry. We also need to repeal a few of the freedoms that were given to the airlines by the feds a few years ago.
I for one would rather a ticket price go up by 50% than get nickeled and dimed to death. I have yet to get a satisfactory explanation of many items on an airline ticket, things like fuel surcharges, destination charges, and the like. I used this example a few weeks ago, but a Taxi doesn’t add a charge to come to the curb, an extra fee for the gas burned, and then a charge to pull up to your destination, why should the airlines?
Don’t get me started on checked bag fees.
All these hidden fees and changes in frequent flyer mile programs could be seen coming down the road for years as the airlines cut back ticket locations, reduced customer service, and started establishing expiration dates on miles. These program changes are “landing” around the time we all had to endure the unreasonable increases in inconvenience (I mean security). And now, we have charges for bags like they are something special to take on a trip.
Thankfully, my business wound down about the same time as these waves were hitting the shore, and now I don’t fly at all, and I’m very happy about it. I look skyward and thankfully recognize all the planes that I’m not on.
A few years ago United Airlines tried to buy down the number of miles that were outstanding with their travelers, because these miles cut into their bottom line. I accepted their offer since I have had more than enough travel with my business, and I wasn’t using the miles for anything else.
I got a KitchenAid blender, Bow Flex, and a SLR Digital Camera for a large chunk of miles. All very nice products that mean way more to me than the miles. If you get a chance to redeem miles for products, my experience shows that it was easy, cost me nothing, and there were no regulatory agencies or pat-down searches involved.
For those who must fly, I wish you peace and safety, and may you find the humor in all of this mess.
I have played the credit card game for years to wrack up mileage. AMEX is the only one that will actually track you and refuse you if you try to get a card within a year on canceling. Right now I have six cards of which four are with airlines. Latest is with CitiCards on AA. 25,000 and no fee for a year. It’ll be canceled when the year is up. I have done that over 10 times with CitiCards. We charge virtually everything so the miles really accumulate. The key is not to accept their offer when you cancel that usually means another year fee free and maybe 5,000 miles.
With Delta we booked two first class tickets from Boston to Sacremanto for the first week of June. Both for 45,000 miles. Sometimes it actually is easier getting flights and using less miles when booking FC. Delta has a bizarre scale that they use regarding miles and it can be costly especially for prime destinations. The key, as always, is book well ahead of time
Rick,
Be careful, not having your accounts open for longer ammounts of time and constantly picking up new ones like that can hurt your credit score. I’m not an account (or one of the soothsayers that comes up with the scores to start with) but you might want to talk to some sort of financial planner.
The credit impact is minimal for opening up various accounts. That is a wonderful battle that I and others have been fighting with FICO for years. Certain cards I have had since day one like Discover. But the airmiles cards? You should see my credit reports – Closed by customer! Page after page yet my score is over 800.